Eve Smith interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Hi, I am Eve Smith and my writing journey began almost nine years ago. I write speculative thrillers, and have been lucky enough to have two novels published by Indie publisher Orenda Books.
I write about issues or discoveries that frighten me, and I use the writing process to explore possible scenarios that could just happen...

When did your love of books begin?

My love of books began as a child. I read a lot, and I also wrote quite a few stories of my own, although I can’t vouch for the quality. In fact, my mother used to sometimes post them off to unsuspecting relatives with cards at Christmas, I suspect in a desperate attempt to get them out of the house.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I had no intention of becoming an author until I joined a local creative writing group. It just hadn’t ever occurred to me that I could do it. But after I joined this group, I just had this incredibly strong feeling that this was what I should do next. So I naively set out to write my first novel, having absolutely no clue just how hard it is!

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

Well, I wasn’t one of those authors that sent off their first manuscript and immediately got taken on! (I really don’t know many authors that’s happened to…)
I worked on The Waiting Rooms for a good three years, and then the novel was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award in 2017.
By this stage I did have agent interest, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2018 that I got taken on by DHH Literary Agency. After further edits, I signed with Orenda Books the following summer and The Waiting Rooms was published the year after, in 2020.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

So what I would say to aspiring authors is: don’t give up.

I realise this is a cliché but it really is the most important rule. Rejection is part of the business, and you have to learn to live with it. It doesn’t stop when you get published, you can still get rejected by bookshops or press or publishers; it’s a continual cycle. But if you keep going, and take on any feedback you get along the way, you will not only improve, you’ll succeed, one way or another, because you’re still in the game.

Tell us about your book/books:

The Waiting Rooms is my debut thriller. It is set in the near future, when decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’… Hospitals where no one ever gets well. Kate is a nurse in The Waiting Rooms, and, after her adoptive mother’s death, she begins a search for her birth mother. What Kate doesn’t realise is that someone else is looking for her mother, too…

 

Off Target is my latest thriller, which is set in a world where genetic engineering has become the norm for humans, not just crops, and parents are prepared to take incalculable risks to ensure that their babies are perfect… altering genes that may cause illness, and more. So when a one-night stand leads to a long-desired pregnancy, Susan will do anything to keep her daughter and ensure her husband won’t find out … including the unthinkable. But as governments embark on a perilous genetic arms race, Susan’s secret isn’t the only thing that is no longer safe…

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

What I love about the community is that it is extremely supportive. Both my books have come out during the pandemic so I have not had one launch event or attended one festival in person yet. (Hoping that is about to change…)
But authors, bloggers and readers have reached out and supported me online, and other writers are genuinely happy for you when something goes well, or reassuring and sympathetic when it doesn’t!
Writing is quite a solitary profession so it’s important to find your writing tribe.
I cannot wait to attend an event in person and actually meet some of the people I’ve got to know virtually!

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

What I would say to my readers is: thank you. We are nothing without our readers, and it really does make it all worth it when you read a review that talks about how your book moved a reader, or made them think. That’s what keeps me going during tough moments. I go back and read reviews. Sometimes I don’t think readers realise how important they are, so I would also say to my readers: if you feel comfortable doing so, please do leave a review saying what you thought, as it makes all the difference to the writer as well as to potential readers.

Where can people connect with you?

People can connect with me on Twitter: @evecsmith. On Instagram: evesmithauthor  Facebook: EveSmithAuthor or via my website: https://www.evesmithauthor.com/